SUNDAY
DECEMBER 1
2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET

This new season of Ray Donovan is only a few episodes old, but already it’s working hard to make its mark. First it took one of the show’s central and most interesting characters and killed him off suddenly – and then, an episode or two later, brought that same character back from the apparent dead. So now what? Ray (Liev Scheiber) responded with what, for him, was a typical reaction: angrily punched the formerly “deceased” man squarely in the face. That’s how last week’s installment ended. Now, to see how this week’s episode begins…
 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

It’s the first of December, and TCM is devoting each Sunday night to a pair of prime-time Christmas movies. Starting the whole month off is one of the absolute classics, based on the classic of all classic holiday stories, by Charles Dickens. This 1951 movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and features Michael Hordern as that perfectly miserable spectre, Jacob Marley (pictured).
 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s installment of Watchmen was amazing – a riveting, fluid, imaginative hour of shifting perspectives and somewhat lucid dreaming. Angela (Regina King), on a mental trip after taking some of the mind-altering drug Nostalgia, experienced some of the revealing, frightening memories of her mysterious grandfather – who resurfaced at episode’s end, but attached to some potentially dangerous allies. As has Angela, by the way, awakening from her dreamy drug coma to find herself in the care of the inscrutable, untrustworthy Lady Trieu (Hong Chau).
 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET

In tonight’s episode, the title character (played so winningly by Kathryn Hahn) gets distracted by a series of increasingly frank and sexy texts – which may or may not be coming from the former high-schooler who was tormented not so long ago by her bullying son.
 
  
 
 

Ovation, 10:00 p.m. ET

This long-running arts interview program, hosted for about a quarter-century by James Lipton, has moved from Bravo to Ovation, and Lipton, while remaining involved with the show, has turned over on-air duties to a series of guest hosts. Tonight, that guest host is Kelsey Grammer, and his guest is James Burrows, the best TV comedy director of a couple of television generations now. Not only did he direct Grammer in all of Frasier, and Cheers before that, but Burrows other prominent directorial credits include Friends, Will & Grace, and Taxi, and stretch all the way back to a few episodes of the original Mary Tyler Moore Show. A particular TV treat, of a conversation between two very talented friends. 

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.